


you feel like an ocean being warmed by the sun

by moss_time



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, F/F, Now they do, everyone is here everyone lives no angst thank you, mermaid au, theres magic but they dont know theres magic yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-20 14:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17024673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moss_time/pseuds/moss_time
Summary: Beauregard visits the abandoned docks to cool off sometimes. Yasha visits the surface to enjoy the night sky.





	1. Unexpected Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> title from simple song by the shins

The first time Beauregard saw a mermaid was, at the time, one of the worst days she had. 

She had gotten into yet another fight with her dad, not a weird occurrence, but this one hit a sore spot. So she did what she always did when pissed off. 

That was how Beau found herself at the abandoned docks around midnight, freezing in only her tank top and sweatpants. She refused to acknowledge angry tears streaming down her face as she let out a groan and sat on the wooden surface. 

She wished she was drunk. Or high. Both could do. 

Wrapping her arms around herself, she looked at the sea, quiet and still, reflecting the moonlight and the stars. 

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and laid down. It was cold, stiff. Uncomfortable. It was grounding. 

She stayed that way for a while, trying to calm down by listening the wind blow and the sea rustle. Fjord had been right about the peacefulness that sea brought. Not that she'd ever admit it. Though Beau was sure that he knew anyway. He'd come to pick her drunk ass from the docks enough times to know. 

Then something disrupted the calming rhythm of wind and sea. It sounded like...breathing. Like someone was breathing very close to her. 

Beau was ready for some dude she had beat in a fight to be there when she opened her eyes, she was ready to beat them again, let out some of that anger in a different, more satisfying way. What she was not ready for was a gorgeous face, staring right at her from the water. 

Beau blinked, confused as to why the hell would anyone go swimming this late at this time of the year, it was cold as shit even on the outside. As she opened her mouth to ask, or perhaps make a shitty remark, she noticed something off about the woman looking at her. 

There were weird... _things_ on her face. Scales. They looked like scales, fish scales but they couldn't be, that's...

She sat up and took a better look. As she did, the woman in the sea rose up to her level, hoisting herself up and _shit_. Those _arms._ And– _oh._  Fuck. 

Not only did this woman have amazing biceps, she was also naked from the waist up. 

Beau forgot about the scales in a second. 

She was about to apologise, not that she minded the view, it was quite a nice one, but–

Behind the woman, the water moved, and a tail, large, silver, fish like tail emerged from the sea. 

Beau screamed. 

It was not her proudest moment. 

Her scream scared the woman, creature, a _mermaid_? What the _fuck–_

But before she got to make a scene, the moment passed and she was gone. All left was a ripple on the surface and the sound of crickets. 

Beau ran away from the sea, grabbing a phone from her pocket and calling Fjord. She waited for only a moment before she heard a groggy mumble. 

“Fjord? Dude! You will not– I just saw a fucking _mermaid_ what the fuck– ”

She heard him sigh, then yawn. “ _Damn you. Are you drunk again? We talked about this. We talked about this so many times–_ ”

“Fuck you! I'm not drunk! Or high! Though I kind of wish I was because holy shit! Dude!”

“ _Mhm. Yeah sure._ ”

“I'm not kidding, there was a naked woman, turned out to be a goddamn mermaid, _right here_ –”

“ _Listen, I don't know what you're on but just, stay there. I'm on my way you asshole._ ”

 

* * *

 

The first time Yasha saw a human was clumsy, and not as much of an accident, despite what she tried to tell her friends. 

Yasha enjoyed the night time, especially the night time close to the surface. The stars and the moon looked magical. The sounds of crickets and far away music, from what Jester said were human clubs, were relaxing. 

This night was the first time she'd seen a human there. An actual human, not just one of Jester's drawings. 

No, there was a real woman, sitting on the docks. Was she crying? It seemed like she was crying. 

Yasha stayed aside, peaking only a bit from the sea, curiosity getting the better of her. 

There was nothing too fascinating about humans if she was asked. They weren't as colourful as mermaids, no tails but instead they had those weird legs similar to what crabs had, only with more meat. She couldn't imagine moving with those. 

As the woman lay down and seemed to close her eyes, Yasha grew bolder and swam closer to the docks. 

The human had her hair tied up, something Yasha never understood. She appeared to be shivering. Mermaids shivered when scared, though according to Jester humans had different reasons for it. Could be fear too. 

She didn't realise how close she came before the woman opened her eyes, looking straight at her. 

Well fuck. 

Yasha didn't move. If she doesn't move they can't see her. Or was that about some sort of an animal? Fuck. 

One of the human's eyes twitched and she got up, still staring at her. 

She could definitely see her. 

In an attempt to do...something, Yasha put her hands on the wood and pushed herself out of the sea, so she was on the eye level with the human. It was an incredibly stupid move, breaking all her rules of not interacting with surfacers, because no one could know what would they do if they found out mermaids existed and she really, _really_  shouldn't have done that. 

But it was too late. 

Human's eyes widened, blue, ocean blue eyes. No mermaid had eyes like that. 

The woman let out a scream. Yasha quickly disappeared under the water. 

She heard loud thumps that she assumed was a sound of running. Dimly she wondered if running hurt human legs. 

She looked out of the water again, just enough to see the woman finally getting to the grass and fumbling with her clothes. 

Were all humans so goddamn loud? Were all their voices that high? To be fair, whenever Jester and Molly spoke in human language their voices _did_ sound more high pitched and sharper.  

The woman was yelling, like she was talking to someone. 

Yasha swam deeper into the sea, intrigued by the humans for the first time. Or one human at least. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

“For the last time, I was not drunk!”

“Okay but–”

“Fuck you!” 

That morning after the mermaid fiasco Beauregard found herself at Fjord's apartment, a small and cozy place. Not a weird occurrence, she'd stay over whenever her dad was being especially unbearable. Only this time she wasn't drunk or hangover. New experiences every now and then. 

Fjord, as she could've expected, found it hard to trust her mermaid story. 

So Beau called Caleb to back her up. It was her last attempt since Caleb was the one person they knew who was into weird, magicy shit. He also owned an entire library, so. 

Well it wasn't an actual library. But his house was packed with enough books to make a library. Same thing. 

And now she and Fjord were bickering with Caleb on the speaker listened and barely uttered a word. 

Beau let out a groan, putting her feet on the table as Fjord shot her a dirty look. 

“Look, fair, If i hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't believe it, but there are so many stories, people have–”

“Folk tales Beau! That's what it is!”

They heard Caleb clear his throat. “ _There have been uh, some sightings. Exactly around here, in fact._ ”

Beau furiously pointed at the phone. “See?!”

“There have also been apparent sightings of aliens,” Fjord sighed. “Bigfoot and whatnot, don't make me go on.”

“ _Not around here._ ”

“You don't believe in aliens?!”

Fjord opened his mouth to defend himself but Caleb cut him off. 

“ _This is not why you called me._ ”

Beau glared at Fjord. “No. I called you to be a _real_  friend and trust me–”

“Hey now!”

“So if you have something on mermaids to support what I saw yesterday that'd be great.”

To their surprise Caleb's answer sounded rather confident. Even excited, which was rare with Caleb, usually he'd only get excited about books. And cats. 

“ _Ja, I might. Come over._ ”

 

* * *

 

One thing Yasha and Mollymauk had in common was their absolute inability to lie. 

So that was how Yasha found herself tripping over her words and in the end admitting to Jester and Molly that she saw a human. 

She might have cut out the part about the human seeing her as well, but that was fine. 

She looked as Jester's gleaming purple eyes lit up at the mention of humans. As long as Yasha had known her, Jester had been fascinated with the surfacers, their cultures and everyday lives. She kept talking about something called 'movies', though sadly there was no way for her to show them any of those under the sea. 

Another object of her fascination were human novels. Of course, merfolk had their way of writing stories but the thing about human books was that there was so much information and details about the life there on the surface, life that Jester craved to experience. 

Molly and Yasha had found one of those novels once. It was thrown into the ocean, pages torn and completely wet. It should have been unusable but with a little bit of help from Caduceus' magic they managed to restore the book, make it waterproof and gift it to their overjoyed friend for her birthday. 

She had read it countless times. Tried to make them read it as well. It was hopeless since only Jester could read that language, so she just decided to retell them the whole story. Countless times. 

While Mollymauk couldn't read human language, he was fluent in it, which had always endlessly fazed Jester. After weeks of begging on her part, he started teaching it to her. With the exception of writing and reading. Molly was a terrible teacher, he had no idea how to explain anything, but Jester's eagerness made up for his lack of skill. Soon enough Jester even figured out the reading part herself. 

So now the two of them could speak the language almost perfectly. On the other hand, Yasha knew only a few base words that she had picked up from listening Jester and Molly, and Caduceus had no desire to learn. It's not that he held any resentment towards humans or their language, he simply didn't need it and therefore saw no reason to bother himself with it. She couldn't argue with that. 

The question as to why Molly knew human language at all was left unanswered. He'd usually laugh it off and change the subject when asked, which usually worked on Yasha and Caduceus but of course Jester was more persistent. The comment about how her accent was quite pronounced when speaking human language didn't lessen Jester's suspicions about Molly's past and 'mingling with humans'. In true Molly fashion he'd just kiss her cheek and make up another story. 

Molly had made up countless lies about his past and relations to humans but again, he was shit at lying. He wanted it to sound overly mysterious, though Yasha knew the truth. He himself had no idea why he understood humans. 

So amongst all of that, her admission about spotting a human was quite exciting. For Jester especially. 

Her blue friend swam into her and grabbed her shoulders, eyes wide and ears perked up. “A human?! Where? How did they look? Were they handsome? Yasha, you have to tell me _everything_!”

Yasha mumbled something and looked at Molly for help. However she got nothing helpful except a surprised but delighted look in his eyes. 

“Uh. Up on the surface?”

“Well duh! But how did they look, what were they doing?! You can't just drop that and not tell me all the details!”

“She was...pretty? I think?”

“You _think_?”

Yasha tried to remember the woman's appearance more. Perhaps if she had had more time she could've appreciated the way she looked more. She wasn't sure what counted as 'handsome' or 'pretty' or any of it really, but she was sure of one thing. “She had eyes like you. Your hair color I mean. Really deep blue.”

“Oh,” Jester clapped. “Humas do have interesting eye colors! They have brown too. Imagine that!”

Brown wasn't a common color between the mermaids. The ones that did exist lived in deeper waters, closer to where Caduceus was. Although he was _pink_ , light pink. How did he end up down there confused Yasha to no end. As did Caduceus in general. 

When she realised she won't get much more information, Jester turned to Molly, who was bothering a tiny crab on a cave wall of Jester's home. “Are you not interested, Molly? A human! We could learn so much from her!”

“Oh,” he looked up just long enough for the crab to escape him. “I was just letting you have your moment, dear.”

“Thank you!”

Molly grinned at her and then finally turned to Yasha. “Honestly out of all of us you're the last person I'd imagine interacting with a human.”

He had a point. Yasha was never that interested in humans, especially not as much as Jester. She enjoyed listening her friend talk about them but she'd never actively search for more information herself. Life in the sea was enough for her. 

It was then that she fucked up. “I didn't interact with her. Just saw her,” she said. As she the words left her mouth Molly's eyebrows shot up, and Jester's eyes got even wider if possible. 

She could've ignored Molly's accidental implication but her fear of getting caught in a lie...made her lie more and in fact ended up being got her caught.

Jester practically squealed in delight. “You talked to her?!” 

“No,” she said firmly. Even if she got a chance, Yasha couldn't speak their language. It would've been hopeless. 

“Did you touch her?” Molly asked at the same time as Jester grabbed her arm again. “Oh my gods is their hair all weird? Is their skin like a dry rock?”

“No. I didn't talk to her. Or touch her. She just saw me. And then ran away.”

Jester gasped. It seemed like nothing could ruin her good mood at the moment.

Yasha however, had more worries now as the excitement wore off. “Do you think she'll tell others?”

“Oh definitely,” Molly nodded. He smiled apologetically when he noticed her anxiety. “I mean you did just tell us about seeing her, right? We're not that different. But at least we know that humans exist while _they_ don't know shit about us. She's probably freaking out right now.” 

“Humans have definitely heard of mermaids,” Jester said. “We were even mentioned in Tusk Love! Only for a paragraph though.”

“True. But humans think we're a, how do you call it,” he made air quotes. “A myth.”

Jester let out a sigh. “They're such dummies. Do they really think they're alone? It sounds so lonely.”

“The _arrogance_.”

“Is neither of you worried about her telling other's about us?” Yasha whispered in case someone was close. Their nonchalance made no sense to her. 

Molly scoffed and Jester just snickered in response. 

“She's gonna tell her friends she saw a _mermaid_ ,” Molly said. “And who is going to believe _that_  story?”

 

* * *

 

 

One of the things that Beauregard and Fjord had learned that day was that ''I might'' coming from Caleb Widogast actually meant ''I have whole ten essays to write about this and you're going to hear all of it''.

Once they arrived at Caleb and Nott's place he told them all he knew about mermaids. Which was...definitely more than expected.

According to Caleb yes, mermaids truly existed, and nonetheless, there were many close to them. Meaning there was a big possibility Beau did in fact see a mermaid. Too bad she was too shocked by Caleb's certainty to shoot Fjord a triumphant smirk. 

They had also learned that mermaids spoke another language, one that sounded either like a deep growl or a song. How they mastered the skill of remaining unseen so that they could exist in peace, with no disturbance from humans. Mermaids were, apparently, masters of magic. Which was a whole another thing to discuss. Magic.

Beau felt like her brain might explode from that much new information.

But Caleb went on. About different ways of practicing magic, countless spells and whatnot. He rambled about many sightings of mermaids all over the world and how there were ones with the ability to shape-shift as well, often taking a human form to wander on the surface.

Then he jumped from mermaids to other creatures that seemingly existed without human knowledge.

He paced around his tiny kitchen and made them coffee in the meantime. Beau stopped listening somewhere during his rant about having trouble to find decent spellbooks, both because of her short attention span and because okay, magic being real was one thing but Caleb actively practicing magic was a lot to process.

But he seemed so excited and glad that someone had finally asked him about this that even Beau didn't have the heart to ask him to slow down. Also, Fjord seemed pretty engulfed in the rant too. So she just let her mind wander. 

Nott noticed her spacing off, the little girl sitting on a spinning chair and drinking something that most likely wasn't coffee. If her expression and lack of reactions were anything to go by she had heard Caleb talk about this already. She didn't look annoyed, more expectant of their reactions to the news.

She threw a yellow stress relief ball towards Beau, who caught it with ease.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, the ball a nice weight in her palm. 

Caleb turned towards her. “What?”

“Nothing, I was talking to Nott. _But,_ ” she added quickly. “I'm losing you here dude, you two can go over your top ten cryptids later. Can we go back at the part where you mention how mermaids are real and I was right and that was totally one of them I saw last night? Also what the _fuck_?”

“Yeah, I second that last part. No offense, but this all sounds like a bunch of fairy tales,” Fjord said. Though Beau could see that he was interested, weirdly interested for someone who apparently didn't believe in any of it. She kept giving him her best 'what did I fucking say' glares. 

Caleb nodded and sat down. “That was a lot, ja. I'm sorry. I forgot you two are new to this.”

He turned his gaze towards Fjord. “Do you want proof?”

“Sorry, _what_?”

“Proof that I am not lying to you and that this is not some figment of my imagination.”

Fjord stuttered but before he actually got to say anything Nott put her mug aside and looked at Caleb, eyebrows raised. He frowned.

“Nein. That is not smart. Not yet.”

Nott huffed and drank more of whatever was in her mug. The two of them had an unusual relationship that confused both Beau and Fjord, though Beau had decided not to pry after some failed attempts to know more. They had met Caleb first, who then introduced Nott as his little sister. Sure, the similaries were there. Redish hair, freckles. But there was obviously more to it. The ridiculous age gap for instance. The way Nott often acted older than she looked. She got along with Beau quite well for someone who was supposedly jistt a child.

Now okay, Beau knew Caleb was a shady dude. But she had decided then that his and Nott's relationship isn't something to pick at, yet.

But perhaps now it was time to open that box. 

“What the fuck was that?”

Caleb cleared his throat awkwardly. “What was what, Beauregard?”

“The thing you said to Nott. What is not smart right now, Caleb?”

He avoided her gaze. Beau groaned.

“Oh _come_ on. You spun us the entire story about magic and otherworldly beings and other mythical shit but you can't answer _t_ _his_?”

“It is complicated,” he said and rubbed his forehead. Then after a quick glare from not he sighed in defeat. “But it is ultimately Nott's choice.”

He kept his eyes at the mug in his hands, fidgeting with the teabag still in the water. Fjord and Beau both turned their heads towards Nott. At that, she put her hands on her head and pulled, like she was taking a hat off. Beau could not remember her wearing a hat, but it suddenly appeared in her hands.

In a blink of an eye, her entire appearance changed. 

The thing that caught Beau's eye first were her eyes. Her eyes used to be dark brown, almost black, but now they were gleaming yellow with only a thin black pupil, like cat's eyes. 

Also, she was green. Moss green, with dark messy hair clumsily tied back, one side shaved. Her ears were...significantly bigger than Beau remembered. And she definitely did not have as many teeth before. _Sharp_ teeth. 

Beau felt her jaw drop. She turned to look at Fjord, to make sure she wasn't imagining things, but Fjord's expression perfectly mirrored her own.

She turned to Nott again and ran a hand over her face in an attempt to relax. She squeezeed the stress ball tighter.

Nott just sat there, fingers– four fingers, she had four clawed fingers– scratching the back of her phone anxiously. She seemed scared, even apologetic, but still sure in her decision. Caleb on the other hand, looked like he was ready to punch them if any kind of inappropriate word left their mouths. A punch coming from Caleb wouldn't be shit but still, Beau had no intention of earning it either.

“So. Okay. You're. What is–” Beau gave up and looked at Caleb. “Can any of you two like, explain?”

“I'm a goblin,” Nott said, obvious disgust in her voice at the word. Beau frowned. “Also, I'm not really his younger sister.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out that part.”

“I didn't,” Fjord murmured. “So Caleb is not a goblin too?”

Caleb shook his head. He seemed to relax as their reactions didn't involve screaming or running away. Which Beau thought wouldn't be that unusual. Was she just supposed to know that one of her friends was a being from fantasy stories? She decided that would not be a fair expectation.

“Are there,” she struggled to form a sentence. “More? Like you? Goblins?”

Nott nodded. “There's many of us. Humans are just blind to things they don't want to see. Also goblins are very good at hiding.”

“Apparently, yeah. You don't have to hide from us though. Right?” she looked at Fjord pointedly. He frowned in confusion, spreading his arms. 

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Well you're the one who wouldn't believe me.”

“Can you blame me though?”

“You know I can blame anyone for anything.”

Fjord rolled his eyes. “Look, this is all a lot to take in so suddenly. But– okay. You were right, apparently. And Nott,” he pointed at the old looking hat that he had set aside after taking it off her head. “How did you do that?”

“Look human?”

“Yeah, what the hell is that thing?”

Nott took the hat and turned it in her hands. “Caleb calls it the hat of disguise. It has some kind of enchantment.”

Fjord squinted. “So if I were to put it on my head...”

“You'd look however you wanted to look,” Caleb confirmed.

“But I am _not_ giving it to you,” Nott said and glared at Fjord, hands firmly holding the hat in her lap.

“I wasn't planning on asking you to hand it over,” he assured her. “I'm just curious. About that and this whole magic thing.”

Caleb stood up to put his mug in the sink. “I can tell you more about it later. I have lots of books about magic,” he said still with his back still turned to them. 

“Sure. When later?”

“When we come back.”

“We're going somewhere?” Nott asked, looking at Beau questioningly. 

Beau shrugged. “We are?”

“Ja, of course we are,” Caleb mumbled and peered at Beau over his shoulder. “You have a friend to show us, no?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this is a kinda boring chapter, also im gonna have to change the pace of this fic due to all the last ep backstory(holy fuck Ashley). It will probably?? hopefully be more of a slow burn than it was planned, i dont know how well i can do that but ill try.  
> I cant promise a regular update schedule bc im a mess and have no schedule for anything, i am sorry about that. Ill probably throw in other ships too, just for fun on the side.  
> Thank you for reading! And for the wonderful comments and support, youre all too nice💛

**Author's Note:**

> Im not sure where this is going, i have more of it written but life is kicking my ass rn so who knows. Im sorry if i fucked up the language. Thank u for reading!


End file.
